DOCSLIB.ORG

How Society Shapes Language: Personal Pronouns in the Greater Burma Zone

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
How Society Shapes Language: Personal Pronouns in the Greater Burma Zone Zurich Open Repository and Archive University of Zurich Main Library Strickhofstrasse 39 CH-8057 Zurich www.zora.uzh.ch Year: 2017 How Society Shapes Language: Personal Pronouns in the Greater Burma Zone Müller, André ; Weymuth, Rachel Abstract: In the “Greater Burma Zone”, an area that includes Myanmar and adjacent regions of the neighboring countries, there are two different systems of personal pronouns that occur predominantly: a grammatical one and one that we call “hierarchical system”. The aim of this paper is to explain the two systems and their development. A sample of 42 languages shows that smaller language communities have grammatical systems and the most dominant languages today have hierarchical ones. Besides these two groups, there are also some languages with a “mixed system”, which means the grammatical system is retained and only a few honorific terms are added as pronouns. An important question will therefore be why the systems are distributed just in this way. Several factors seem to play a role, among them sociocultural structures, historical developments and language contact. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/asia-2016-0021 Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-141158 Journal Article Published Version Originally published at: Müller, André; Weymuth, Rachel (2017). How Society Shapes Language: Personal Pronouns in the Greater Burma Zone. Asiatische Studien / Études Asiatiques, 71(1):409-432. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/asia-2016-0021 ASIA 2017; 71(1): 409–432 André Müller* and Rachel Weymuth How Society Shapes Language: Personal Pronouns in the Greater Burma Zone DOI 10.1515/asia-2016-0021 Abstract: In the “Greater Burma Zone”, an area that includes Myanmar and adjacent regions of the neighboring countries, there are two different systems of personal pronouns that occur predominantly: a grammatical one and one that we call “hierarchical system”. The aim of this paper is to explain the two systems and their development. A sample of 42 languages shows that smaller language communities have grammatical systems and the most dominant languages today have hierarchical ones. Besides these two groups, there are also some languages with a “mixed system”, which means the grammatical system is retained and only a few honorific terms are added as pronouns. An important question will therefore be why the systems are distributed just in this way. Several factors seem to play a role, among them sociocultural structures, historical developments and language contact. Keywords: Myanmar, linguistics, pronouns, sociocultural structures, historical development 1 Introduction In the Greater Burma Zone, a region encompassing modern Myanmar and bordering areas within China, India, Bangladesh, Laos, and Thailand, over a hundred languages are spoken that mainly belong to the Sino-Tibetan, Tai- Kadai, and Austroasiatic language families. The systems of personal pronouns used in these languages can be classified into two main types, which behave like extrema on a continuum. There are the so-called “grammatical systems”,a closed class with up to a dozen pronouns marked for various grammatical categories. The other type are the so-called “hierarchical systems”, an open class of pronouns, often grammatically underspecified, but highly marked for *Corresponding author: André Müller, Department of Comparative Linguistics, University of Zurich, Plattenstrasse 54, 8032 Zurich, Switzerland. E-mail: [email protected] Rachel Weymuth, Department of Comparative Linguistics, University of Zurich, Plattenstrasse 54, 8032 Zurich, Switzerland. E-mail: [email protected] Brought to you by | UZH Hauptbibliothek / Zentralbibliothek Zürich Authenticated Download Date | 3/27/17 2:24 PM 410 André Müller and Rachel Weymuth the complex relation between speaker and addressee according to their relative position in the society. The latter group mainly comprises of large lowland languages, like Burmese (and in other countries of mainland Southeast Asia also Thai, Lao, Khmer, and Vietnamese). Grammatical pronoun systems are usually found in smaller, peripheral languages such as Palaung, Jinghpaw or the Karenic languages. Furthermore, there are languages geographically “inbetween”, spoken on the plateaus of the Greater Burma Zone, that have mixed pronominal systems showing features of both grammatical and hierarchical systems. Based on a database developed in the project The Greater Burma Zone – A Transitional Zone of Languages and Peoples, the present study shows the geographic distribution of these pronominal systems in and around Myanmar. Geography probably indirectly influences the shape of the languages, in which the mediating factor is mainly the economy (favorable wet-rice agriculture in the lowlands vs. less surplus from dry-rice farming in the highlands), effecting the political powers of the societies in these areas. This, in turn, directly influences the type of society found among these peoples: lowland societies tend to be strongly hierarchically structured, whereas highland societies have more egali- tarian societal systems. Throughout the time, this difference manifests itself in hierarchical pronominal systems among lowland languages, while the lan- guages of the egalitarian societies maintained their original grammatical sys- tems reconstructable for all three language families. The factors leading to these systems and their distribution in Myanmar and beyond will be the main point discussed in this paper. Apart from the insight into the languages of the area, this study presents an example of how linguistic phenomena can be explained historically and sociologically. 2 The languages of the Greater Burma Zone The latest version of the Ethnologue lists 117 living languages in Myanmar today, ranging from the official state language Burmese, spoken by about 32 million L1 speakers and 10 million L2 speakers, to languages with only a few hundred speakers.1 The “borders” of these speech communities hardly coincide with modern political borders, and many of the languages are not only spoken in the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, but also in neighboring countries. It thus makes sense to look at the language situation in a broader area that includes 1 Lewis et al. 2016. Brought to you by | UZH Hauptbibliothek / Zentralbibliothek Zürich Authenticated Download Date | 3/27/17 2:24 PM How Society Shapes Language 411 adjacent regions, especially in Thailand, India and China. Therefore the term Greater Burma Zone (GBZ) is more suitable. Most of the languages spoken in the GBZ can be classified into three major language families: Sino-Tibetan is the biggest family in the area, with members spoken all over Myanmar and China, as well as in adjacent regions of India. Within Myanmar they include Burmese, Jinghpaw, Karen, Pa’o, Lisu, the various Chin and Naga varieties, and others. Tai-Kadai languages in Myanmar are mainly Shan and its two close relatives Khamti and Khün. Outside of Myanmar several Tai languages are spoken in southern China, Laos, Thailand and some in Assam. Thai and Lao are also members of this family and are official state languages in Thailand and Laos, respectively. The third family is Austroasiatic, with official state languages in Cambodia (Khmer) and Vietnam (Vietnamese). Within Myanmar the languages Mon, Wa, Danau, the Palaung varieties, and others belong to this family. In addition, there are also Indo- European, Hmong-Mien and Austronesian languages spoken in the GBZ. Map 1 shows the rough distribution of the major speech communities dis- cussed in this article. 3 Personal pronouns One grammatical domain in which influence from the types of social systems is evident are personal pronouns. Personal pronouns are a subset of pronouns, used to refer to speech act participants, that is, the speaker and the addressee.2 In this paper, also third person pronouns are included, although strictly speak- ing they are not speech act participants and thus are often not considered personal pronouns. Dixon describes personal pronouns as “shifters”.3 A shifter is a kind of referential index whose “reference shifts regularly, depending on the factors of the speech situation” and whose referential value “depends on the presupposition of its pragmatic value”.4 Prototypical examples of shifters are tense markers and deixis, the latter of which includes pronominal reference. The nature of the speech event (e. g.: who is talking to whom) thus deter- mines the reference and thereby the correct interpretation of terms like ‘I’ and ‘you’ in the discourse. 2 For further discussions on pronouns in general, see Bhat 2004: 132ff; Simon/Wiese 2002; Cysouw 2003. 3 Dixon 2010a: 114, referring to Silverstein 1976. 4 Silverstein 1976: 24. Brought to you by | UZH Hauptbibliothek / Zentralbibliothek Zürich Authenticated Download Date | 3/27/17 2:24 PM 412 André Müller and Rachel Weymuth Map 1: Distribution of languages in Myanmar. Source: Adapted from Huffman 2011. The assumption in this paper is that in the case of Southeast Asia, the type of pronominal system can be explained by socio-historic trends that have mani- fested in the languages over time. Personal pronouns are used to refer directly to oneself and the person spoken to, thus they are prone to modification to encode social status, gender, relative age, and other information about the speech act participants that are relevant to being perceived as respectful and Brought to you by | UZH Hauptbibliothek / Zentralbibliothek Zürich Authenticated
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Development of Education Among the Tangkhul in Ukhrul (Is an Abstract of the Presenter Thesis Entitle “Education of the Tribal
    © 2021 JETIR February 2021, Volume 8, Issue 2 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162) Development of Education among the Tangkhul in Ukhrul (is an abstract of the presenter thesis entitle “Education of the Tribals in Manipur- development, practice and problems with special reference to Ukhrul District) Dr. Khayi Philawon Assistant professor Pettigrew College Introduction:- Ukhrul is located at the east of Manipur state. It has an average elevation of 1662m (5452feet) above the sea level. It has wet summer and cold, dry winter. Ukhrul district is divided into two district recently as Ukhrul District and Kamjong District. But the present study will be limited till 1991. The Tangkhul Naga tribe inhabit the Ukhrul district. The tribals of Manipur is broadly categorise into the Nagas and the Kuki-Chin tribes. The 31 tribes, of Manipur falls into these two major tribes of Manipur Nagas Kukichin 1. Ailmol 1. Zou 2. Anal 2. Simte 3. Angami 3. Gangte 4. Chiru 4. Any Mizo 5. Chothe 5. Hmar 6. Koireng 6.Thadou – Ralte 7. Kairao 7. Paite 8. Maram/Thangal 8.Vaiphei – Salhte 9. Lamkang 10. Zeliang – Pumei – Rongmei – Rong – Kaccha Naga – Zemi – Liangmei 11. Kom 12. Tarao – Mayon 13. Mao – Paomei 14. Maring 15. Purum 16. Sema JETIR2102233 Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (JETIR) www.jetir.org 1926 © 2021 JETIR February 2021, Volume 8, Issue 2 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162) The Tangkhuls are one Naga tribes of Manipur. Though the majority of the people settle in Ukhrul district, they were scattered all over Manipur. The Tangkhuls were tall with large head and heavy stoiled feature, as a rule.
    [Show full text]
  • Understanding the Origin of the Terms 'WUNG', 'HAO' and 'TANGKHUL'
    International Research Journal of Social Sciences_____________________________________ ISSN 2319–3565 Vol. 3(5), 36-40, May (2014) Int. Res. J. Social Sci. Understanding the Origin of the terms ‘WUNG’, ‘HAO’ and ‘TANGKHUL’ Mawon Somingam Department of Cultural and Creative Studies, North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) Shillong, Meghalaya, 793022, INDIA Available online at: www.isca.in, www.isca.me Received 7th March 2014, revised 10 th April 2014, accepted 12 th May 2014 Abstract Understanding the origin and meaning of nomenclature of the ‘people’ or term referring to the ‘people’ is as important as identity of the people itself. At times, terms and nomenclatures of the ‘people’ are given by non locals. In the Naga context, the term ‘Naga’ itself is non-local, nomenclature of its federating tribes like Tangkhul is non-local, and names of many Tangkhul villages like Ukhrul, Tushen, Lambui, and Hundung etc. are given by non local administrators, missionaries, anthropologists and neighbouring communities among others. The core focus of the paper is to understand the origin of the terms WUNG, HAO and TANGKHUL. It also brings in the hypothesis of ‘Tangkhul-Meitei Origin’ while attempting to understand the people in brief. One of the main arguments of the paper is that the term HAO is the original or traditional nomenclature of the Tangkhul Nagas. Keywords : Wung, Hao, Tangkhul, Meitei, Christian and People. Introduction “Wung is no longer use today, neither by the people themselves, nor in official transaction” 5. However, it would be wrong to say Though there is no consensus among the local writers and that the term wung is no longer in use today.
    [Show full text]
  • Some Principles of the Use of Macro-Areas Language Dynamics &A
    Online Appendix for Harald Hammarstr¨om& Mark Donohue (2014) Some Principles of the Use of Macro-Areas Language Dynamics & Change Harald Hammarstr¨om& Mark Donohue The following document lists the languages of the world and their as- signment to the macro-areas described in the main body of the paper as well as the WALS macro-area for languages featured in the WALS 2005 edi- tion. 7160 languages are included, which represent all languages for which we had coordinates available1. Every language is given with its ISO-639-3 code (if it has one) for proper identification. The mapping between WALS languages and ISO-codes was done by using the mapping downloadable from the 2011 online WALS edition2 (because a number of errors in the mapping were corrected for the 2011 edition). 38 WALS languages are not given an ISO-code in the 2011 mapping, 36 of these have been assigned their appropri- ate iso-code based on the sources the WALS lists for the respective language. This was not possible for Tasmanian (WALS-code: tsm) because the WALS mixes data from very different Tasmanian languages and for Kualan (WALS- code: kua) because no source is given. 17 WALS-languages were assigned ISO-codes which have subsequently been retired { these have been assigned their appropriate updated ISO-code. In many cases, a WALS-language is mapped to several ISO-codes. As this has no bearing for the assignment to macro-areas, multiple mappings have been retained. 1There are another couple of hundred languages which are attested but for which our database currently lacks coordinates.
    [Show full text]
  • De Sousa Sinitic MSEA
    THE FAR SOUTHERN SINITIC LANGUAGES AS PART OF MAINLAND SOUTHEAST ASIA (DRAFT: for MPI MSEA workshop. 21st November 2012 version.) Hilário de Sousa ERC project SINOTYPE — École des hautes études en sciences sociales [email protected]; [email protected] Within the Mainland Southeast Asian (MSEA) linguistic area (e.g. Matisoff 2003; Bisang 2006; Enfield 2005, 2011), some languages are said to be in the core of the language area, while others are said to be periphery. In the core are Mon-Khmer languages like Vietnamese and Khmer, and Kra-Dai languages like Lao and Thai. The core languages generally have: – Lexical tonal and/or phonational contrasts (except that most Khmer dialects lost their phonational contrasts; languages which are primarily tonal often have five or more tonemes); – Analytic morphological profile with many sesquisyllabic or monosyllabic words; – Strong left-headedness, including prepositions and SVO word order. The Sino-Tibetan languages, like Burmese and Mandarin, are said to be periphery to the MSEA linguistic area. The periphery languages have fewer traits that are typical to MSEA. For instance, Burmese is SOV and right-headed in general, but it has some left-headed traits like post-nominal adjectives (‘stative verbs’) and numerals. Mandarin is SVO and has prepositions, but it is otherwise strongly right-headed. These two languages also have fewer lexical tones. This paper aims at discussing some of the phonological and word order typological traits amongst the Sinitic languages, and comparing them with the MSEA typological canon. While none of the Sinitic languages could be considered to be in the core of the MSEA language area, the Far Southern Sinitic languages, namely Yuè, Pínghuà, the Sinitic dialects of Hǎinán and Léizhōu, and perhaps also Hakka in Guǎngdōng (largely corresponding to Chappell (2012, in press)’s ‘Southern Zone’) are less ‘fringe’ than the other Sinitic languages from the point of view of the MSEA linguistic area.
    [Show full text]
  • The Extent and Nature of the Cprs in the Northeast I. the Concept Of
    The Extent and Nature of the CPRs in the Northeast The Common Property Resources (CPRs) are important sources of livelihood to rural households in general and to the rural poor in particular. They are the livelihood both tangible and intangible of thousands of people. Far from being an exception to this, since most North Eastern States are on a hilly terrain inhabited by tribals, the CPRs play a more important role in people’s livelihood in this region than in the rest of India. The North Eastern economy is agrarian . Agriculture is the principal means of livelihood of most of its people 47.4 percent of whom are cultivators and 11.41 percent earn their livelihood as agricultural labourers. Table 2 shows the significance of land as a source of livelihood of the people of the Northeast. Thus, agriculture occupies an important place in the economy of the region but other sectors are neglected. 70 to 75 percent of the workforce of the region depends on the primary sector against 66 percent in India as a whole. More than 20 percent depend on the tertiary sector. These figures show the importance of CPRs as a source of livelihood of people of the region. I. The Concept of CPRs in General and in North East India The CPRs are community assets that provide both tangible and intangible livelihood (Shyhendra 2002: 3291) to their dependants. They include land used for cultivation and grazing, forests from which non-timber forest produce (NTFP) are collected, waste and panchayat land, watersheds, rivulets, rivers, ponds and other community assets.
    [Show full text]
  • Rise of the Veil: Islamic Modernity and the Hui Woman Zainab Khalid SIT Study Abroad
    SIT Graduate Institute/SIT Study Abroad SIT Digital Collections Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection SIT Study Abroad Spring 2011 Rise of the Veil: Islamic Modernity and the Hui Woman Zainab Khalid SIT Study Abroad Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/isp_collection Part of the Asian Studies Commons, Comparative Methodologies and Theories Commons, Family, Life Course, and Society Commons, History of Religions of Eastern Origins Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Khalid, Zainab, "Rise of the Veil: Islamic Modernity and the Hui Woman" (2011). Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection. 1074. https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/isp_collection/1074 This Unpublished Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the SIT Study Abroad at SIT Digital Collections. It has been accepted for inclusion in Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection by an authorized administrator of SIT Digital Collections. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Rise of the Veil: Islamic Modernity and the Hui Woman Zainab Khalid SIT FALL 2011 5/1/2011 1 Introduction: Assimilation/Dissimilation The Hui are a familiar sight in most cities in China; famed for their qingzhen restaurants and their business acumen. Known usually as the “Chinese speaking Muslims,” they are separated from the nine other Muslim xiaoshu minzu by a reputation for assimilation and adaptability that is a matter of pride for Hui in urban areas. A conversation with Hui women at Nancheng Mosque in Kunming revealed that they believed Hui to be at an advantage compared to other xiaoshu minzu because of their abilities to adapt and assimilate, “we are intelligent; we know what to do in order to survive in any environment.” Yet, the Hui of Yunnan also have a history of dissimilation- the Panthay Rebellion of 1856 took the shape of a Sultanate in Dali as Hui forces led a province-wide revolt against the Qing Empire.
    [Show full text]
  • The Tangkhul Naga Traditional Custom of Marriage
    © 2019 JETIR March 2019, Volume 6, Issue 3 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162) The Tangkhul Naga Traditional Custom of Marriage. ABOUT THE AUTHOR DR.Ringkahao Horam (Associate Professor) is the second son of Mrs. Lateola & Thikatai Horam of Tusom Christian village, Ukhrul District Manipur state. He has done B.A (H) in political science from Delhi University and M.A. Political Science from JNU New Delhi. In 1993, he finished M.Phil from Manipur University. In 2012 he was awarded Doctor of Philosophy (Ph:D) from the Manipur University (Department of Political Science) for the research work ‘The Naga Political Movement: 1946- 1964’.He has to his credit several articles of National and International Journal and has participated many seminars and conferences as a resource person. He has published book on 1. “The Genesis of the Naga political Movement” 2.”Customary Laws of the Nagas of Manipur” .3. “Undeclared War: The Naga Political Movement. 4. The Tangkhul Folk Poetry in Song.5.Naga Festivals. 6. My Roots. 7. Ideology: influences and Trends of Naga political Movements. He joined government service in the college in 1990.Now he is Associate Professor and HOD. Department of Political Science, Modern College, Imphal He is passionate with Traditional Culture and Custom. He has been actively involves in many social, cultural and Environmental campaigns in different forums. He is also a Human Rights activist who has participated in trainer training course on “Fact finding and Documentation of Human Rights violation” held in Manila, Philippines in 1994. At present, he is the coordinator of Human Rights Education cell, Modern college Imphal.
    [Show full text]
  • Minority Languages in India
    Thomas Benedikter Minority Languages in India An appraisal of the linguistic rights of minorities in India ---------------------------- EURASIA-Net Europe-South Asia Exchange on Supranational (Regional) Policies and Instruments for the Promotion of Human Rights and the Management of Minority Issues 2 Linguistic minorities in India An appraisal of the linguistic rights of minorities in India Bozen/Bolzano, March 2013 This study was originally written for the European Academy of Bolzano/Bozen (EURAC), Institute for Minority Rights, in the frame of the project Europe-South Asia Exchange on Supranational (Regional) Policies and Instruments for the Promotion of Human Rights and the Management of Minority Issues (EURASIA-Net). The publication is based on extensive research in eight Indian States, with the support of the European Academy of Bozen/Bolzano and the Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, Kolkata. EURASIA-Net Partners Accademia Europea Bolzano/Europäische Akademie Bozen (EURAC) – Bolzano/Bozen (Italy) Brunel University – West London (UK) Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität – Frankfurt am Main (Germany) Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group (India) South Asian Forum for Human Rights (Nepal) Democratic Commission of Human Development (Pakistan), and University of Dhaka (Bangladesh) Edited by © Thomas Benedikter 2013 Rights and permissions Copying and/or transmitting parts of this work without prior permission, may be a violation of applicable law. The publishers encourage dissemination of this publication and would be happy to grant permission.
    [Show full text]
  • Southeast Asian Tone in Areal Perspective
    Edinburgh Research Explorer Southeast Asian tone in areal perspective Citation for published version: Kirby, J & Brunelle, M 2017, Southeast Asian tone in areal perspective. in R Hickey (ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Areal Linguistics. Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 703-731. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781107279872.027 Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.1017/9781107279872.027 Link: Link to publication record in Edinburgh Research Explorer Document Version: Peer reviewed version Published In: The Cambridge Handbook of Areal Linguistics Publisher Rights Statement: This material has been published in The Cambridge Handbook of Areal Linguistics edited by Raymond Hickey. This version is free to view and download for personal use only. Not for re-distribution, re-sale or use in derivative works. © Cambridge University Press. General rights Copyright for the publications made accessible via the Edinburgh Research Explorer is retained by the author(s) and / or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Take down policy The University of Edinburgh has made every reasonable effort to ensure that Edinburgh Research Explorer content complies with UK legislation. If you believe that the public display of this file breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 01. Oct. 2021 To appear in R. Hickey (ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Areal Linguistics. Please do not cite without permission. Southeast Asian tone in areal perspective James Kirby and Marc Brunelle 1 Introduction Tone is often presented as one of the quintessential features identifying mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA)1 as a linguistic area (Henderson 1965; Matisoff 2001; Enfield 2011).
    [Show full text]
  • Download Download
    SPECIAL SECTION Who is a Naga village? The Naga 'village republic' through the ages Jelle J P Wouters Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 99–120 | ISSN 2050-487X | www.southasianist.ed.ac.uk 2017 | The South Asianist 5 (1): 99-120 | pg. 99 Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 99-120 Who is a Naga village? The Naga 'village republic' through the ages JELLE J P WOUTERS, Royal Thimphu College [email protected] This article engages historically and ethnographically the idea and idiom of the prototypical Naga ‘village republic.’ Even as the popular imagination of Naga villages as ‘republics’ traces back to colonial writings, and while much has changed since, I illustrate the remarkable resilience of the ‘Naga village’ as a political, partisan, self-protective and affective unit. I perceive the Naga village as encompassing a moral community characterized by its temporal and spatial rootedness, and whose inhabitants define themselves through the conduit of historical memory – a nexus locally between history, locality, ancestral genealogy, and identity – and which orients their relations with neighbouring and nearby villages and villagers. More specifically, I discuss the contemporary form and substance of the ‘Naga village’ in relation to (1) identity and identification, (2) local governance, particularly Nagaland’s policy of communitisation, and (3) democracy and elections. ‘Nothing much happens these days. We are just fulfilling our duty being here’, Chuba, a village defence guard in the Chang Naga hilltop village of Noksen, said while brewing ‘pica’, or black tea, to taste on a smouldering fire. Firewood was stacked close by. Lunch was to be prepared next.
    [Show full text]
  • 'Collective Memory' As an Alternative to Dominant (Hi)Stories In
    NATASA THOUDAM: ‘Collective Memory’ as an Alternative to Dominant (Hi)stories in Narratives by Women from and in Manipur Postcolonial Interventions, Vol. II, Issue 1 Postcolonial Interventions, Vol. II, Issue 1, (ISSN 2455-6564) Abstract Theorizing in the context of France, Pierre Nora laments the erosion of ‗national memory‘ or what he calls ―milieux de memoire‖ and the emergence of what have remained of such an erosion as ‗sites of memory‘ or ―lieux de memoire‖ (7–24). Further he contends that all historic sites or ―lieux d’histoire‖ (19) such as ―museums, archives, cemeteries, festivals, anniversaries, treaties, depositions, monuments, sanctuaries, fraternal orders‖ (10) and even the ―historian‖ can become lieux de memoire provided that in their invocation there is a will to remember (19). In contrast to Nora‘s lamentation, in the particular context of Manipur, a state in Northeast part of India, there is a reversal. It is these very ‗sites of memory‘ that bring to life the ‗collective memory‘ of Manipur, which is often national, against the homogenizing tendencies of the histories of conflicting nationalisms in Manipur, including those of the Indian nation-state. This paper shows how photographs of Manorama Thangjam‘s ‗raped‘ body, the suicide note of the ‗raped‘ Miss Rose, Mary Kom‘s autobiography, and ‗Rani‘ Gaidinlui‘s struggle become sites for ‗collective‘ memory that emerge as an alternative to history in Manipur. Keywords: Manipuri Women Writers, Pierre Nora, Conflict of Nationalisms, Collective Memory, Sites of Memory 34 Postcolonial Interventions, Vol. II, Issue 1, (ISSN 2455-6564) Theorizing in the context of France, Pierre Nora laments the erosion of ‗national memory‘ or what he calls ―milieux de memoire‖ and the emergence of what have remained of such an erosion as ‗sites of memory‘ or ―lieux de memoire‖ (7–24).
    [Show full text]
  • Asho Daniel Tignor
    University of North Dakota UND Scholarly Commons Theses and Dissertations Theses, Dissertations, and Senior Projects January 2018 A Phonology Of Hill (kone-Tu) Asho Daniel Tignor Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.und.edu/theses Recommended Citation Tignor, Daniel, "A Phonology Of Hill (kone-Tu) Asho" (2018). Theses and Dissertations. 2364. https://commons.und.edu/theses/2364 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, and Senior Projects at UND Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of UND Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A PHONOLOGY OF HILL (KONE-TU) ASHO by Daniel Tignor Bachelor of Science, Harding University, 2005 A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the University of North Dakota in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Grand Forks, North Dakota August 2018 i PERMISSION Title A Phonology of Hill (Kone-Tu) Asho Department Linguistics Degree Master of Arts In presenting this thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a graduate degree from the University of North Dakota, I agree that the library of this University shall make it freely available for inspection. I further agree that permission for extensive copying for scholarly purposes may be granted by the professor who supervised my thesis work or, in his absence, by the chairperson of the department or the dean of the Graduate School. It is understood that any copying or publication or other use of this thesis or part thereof for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission.
    [Show full text]